Phthalate metabolites in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from Norwegian coastal waters.

The exposure of marine mammals to phthalates has received considerable attention due to the ubiquitous occurrence of these pollutants in the marine environment and their potential adverse health effects. The occurrence of phthalate metabolites is well established in human populations, but data is scarce for marine mammals. In this study, concentrations of 17 phthalate metabolites were determined in liver samples collected from one hundred (n = 100) by-caught harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) along the coast of Norway.

Pelagic occurrences of the ice amphipod throughout the Arctic.

is a common, sea ice-associated amphipod found throughout the Arctic Ocean and has long been considered permanently associated with the sea ice habitat. However, pelagic occurrences of have also been reported. It was recently suggested that overwinters at depth within the Atlantic-water inflow near Svalbard, to avoid being exported out of the Arctic Ocean through the Fram Strait.

High Arctic ecosystem states: Conceptual models of vegetation change to guide long-term monitoring and research.

Vegetation change has consequences for terrestrial ecosystem structure and functioning and may involve climate feedbacks. Hence, when monitoring ecosystem states and changes thereof, the vegetation is often a primary monitoring target. Here, we summarize current understanding of vegetation change in the High Arctic-the World's most rapidly warming region-in the context of ecosystem monitoring.

Seasonal shifts in feeding patterns: Individual and population realized specialization in a high Arctic fish.

Species with a broad and flexible diet may be at an advantage in a rapidly changing environment such as in today's Arctic ecosystems. Polar cod (), an abundant and ecologically important circumpolar Arctic fish, is often described as a zooplankton generalist feeder, which suggests that it may cope successfully with changes in prey composition. This description is justified based on the relatively broad diet of polar cod across sites and seasons.

Silver spoon effects are constrained under extreme adult environmental conditions.

Early-life environmental conditions may generate cohort differences in individual fitness, subsequently affecting population growth rates. Three, nonmutually exclusive hypotheses predict the nature of these fitness differences: (1) silver spoon effects, where individuals born in good conditions perform better across the range of adult environments; (2) the "environmental saturation" hypothesis, where fitness differences only occur in intermediate adult environmental conditions; and (3) the "environmental matching" or "predictive adaptive response" (PAR) hypothesis, where fitness is highest when adult environmental conditions match those experienced in early life. We quantified the context-dependent effect of early-life environment on subsequent reproductive success, survival, and population growth rate (λ) of Svalbard reindeer, and explored how well it was explained by the three hypotheses.

Data set on sedimentology, palaeoecology and chronology of middle to late pleistocene deposits on the Taimyr Peninsula, Arctic Russia.

This Data in Brief paper contains data (including images) from Quaternary sedimentary successions investigated along the Bol'shaya Balakhnya River and the Luktakh-Upper Taimyra-Logata river system on southern Taimyr Peninsula, NW Siberia (Russia). Marine foraminifera and mollusc fauna composition, extracted from sediment samples, is presented. The chronology (time of deposition) of the sediment successions is reconstructed from three dating methods; (i) radiocarbon dating of organic detritus (from lacustrine/fluvial sediment) and molluscs (marine sediment) as finite ages (usually <42 000 years) or as non-finite ages (>42 000-48 000 years) on samples/sediments beyond the radiocarbon dating limit; (ii) Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating on marine molluscs (up to ages >400 000 years); (iii) Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, usually effective up to 100-150 0000 years.

Diverging phenological responses of Arctic seabirds to an earlier spring.

The timing of annual events such as reproduction is a critical component of how free-living organisms respond to ongoing climate change. This may be especially true in the Arctic, which is disproportionally impacted by climate warming. Here, we show that Arctic seabirds responded to climate change by moving the start of their reproduction earlier, coincident with an advancing onset of spring and that their response is phylogenetically and spatially structured.

Benthic macrofaunal bioturbation activities from shelf to deep basin in spring to summer transition in the Arctic Ocean.

The aim of this study was to assess bioturbation rates in relation to macrozoobenthos and environmental variables in the Svalbard fjords, Barents Sea and Nansen Basin during spring to summer transition. The results showed differences in benthic community structure across sampled area in relation to sediment type and phytopigment content. Fjords, Barents Sea and the shallow parts of Nansen Basin (<400 m) were characterized by high functional groups diversity, and by biodiffusive and non-local rates ranging from 0.

Postglacial relative sea level change and glacier activity in the early and late Holocene: Wahlenbergfjorden, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard.

Sediment cores from Kløverbladvatna, a threshold lake in Wahlenbergfjorden, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard were used to reconstruct Holocene glacier fluctuations. Meltwater from Etonbreen spills over a threshold to the lake, only when the glacier is significantly larger than at present. Lithological logging, loss-on-ignition, ITRAX scanning and radiocarbon dating of the cores show that Kløverbladvatna became isolated from Wahlenbergfjorden c.

Proactive avoidance behaviour and pace-of-life syndrome in Atlantic salmon.

Individuals in a fish population differ in key life-history traits such as growth rate and body size. This raises the question of whether such traits cluster along a fast-slow growth continuum according to a pace-of-life syndrome (POLS). Fish species like salmonids may develop a bimodal size distribution, providing an opportunity to study the relationships between individual growth and behavioural responsiveness.

Dead or Alive; or Does It Really Matter? Level of Congruency Between Trophic Modes in Total and Active Fungal Communities in High Arctic Soil.

Describing dynamics of belowground organisms, such as fungi, can be challenging. Results of studies based on environmental DNA (eDNA) may be biased as the template does not discriminate between metabolically active cells and dead biomass. We analyzed ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) coextracted from 48 soil samples collected from a manipulated snow depth experiment in two distinct vegetation types in Svalbard, in the High Arctic.

Mandibular shape in farmed Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) exposed to persistent organic pollutants.

We investigated if dietary exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) affect mandibular asymmetry and periodontal disease in paired male-siblings of Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus). During ontogeny, one group of siblings was exposed to the complexed POP mixture in naturally contaminated minke whale (Balaenoptere acutorostarta) blubber (n = 10), while another group was given wet feed based on pig (Sus scrofa) fat as a control (n = 11). The ∑POP concentrations were 802 ng/g ww in the whale-based feed compared to 24 ng/g ww in the control diet.

Author Correction: Interplay of grounding-line dynamics and sub-shelf melting during retreat of the Bjørnøyrenna Ice Stream.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Thermo-mechanical loads of confined sea ice on structures.

Records of the ice pressures on the joggle skirt of the coal quay in Spitsbergen were performed over winter seasons in 2013 and 2015. The ice thickness below the quay was above 2 m. Ice temperature over the ice thickness and water pressure at the sea bed were measured synchronously.

Bacterial community composition responds to changes in copepod abundance and alters ecosystem function in an Arctic mesocosm study.

Combining a minimum food web model with Arctic microbial community dynamics, we have suggested that top-down control by copepods can affect the food web down to bacterial consumption of organic carbon. Pursuing this hypothesis further, we used the minimum model to design and analyse a mesocosm experiment, studying the effect of high (+Z) and low (-Z) copepod density on resource allocation, along an organic-C addition gradient. In the Arctic, both effects are plausible due to changes in advection patterns (affecting copepods) and meltwater inputs (affecting carbon).

Interplay of grounding-line dynamics and sub-shelf melting during retreat of the Bjørnøyrenna Ice Stream.

The Barents Sea Ice Sheet was a marine-based ice sheet, i.e., it rested on the Barents Sea floor during the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ky BP).

Effects of a complex contaminant mixture on thyroid hormones in breeding hooded seal mothers and their pups.

There is a general lack of information on the possible effects of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) on thyroid hormones (THs) in wildlife species. The effects of PFASs, which are known endocrine disruptors, on the TH homeostasis in hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) have yet to be investigated. Previously, correlations were found between plasma thyroid hormone (TH) concentrations in hooded seals, and organohalogen contaminants (OHCs) and hydroxyl (OH)-metabolites.

High-quality draft genome of the methanotroph Str. HV10-M2 isolated from plant material at a high-altitude environment.

Here we present the genome of strain HV10-M2, a methanotroph isolated from Hardangervidda national park (Norway). This strain represents the second of the two validly published species genus with a sequenced genome. The other is HT12, which is the type strain of the species and the type species of the genus We present the genome of str.

Effect of CO Phase States and Flow Rate on Salt Precipitation in Shale Caprocks-A Microfluidic Study.

Fracture networks inside the caprock for CO storage reservoirs may serve as leakage pathways. Fluid flow through fractured caprocks and bypass conduits, however, can be restrained or diminished by mineral precipitations. This study investigates precipitation of salt crystals in an artificial fracture network as a function of pressure-temperature conditions and CO phase states.

Sequence clustering threshold has little effect on the recovery of microbial community structure.

Analysis of microbial community structure by multivariate ordination methods, using data obtained by high-throughput sequencing of amplified markers (i.e., DNA metabarcoding), often requires clustering of DNA sequences into operational taxonomic units (OTUs).

Effects of oil spill response technologies on the physiological performance of the Arctic copepod Calanus glacialis.

A mesocosm study with oil in ice was performed in Van Mijenfjorden in Svalbard to compare effects of the oil spill responses (OSR) in situ burning, chemical dispersion and natural attenuation on the physiological performance of the Arctic copepod Calanus glacialis. Seawater collected from the mesocosms in winter and spring was used in laboratory incubation experiments, where effects on fecal pellet production, egg production and hatching success were investigated over a period of 14 days. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) seawater concentrations were lowest in winter.

Seroprevalence for Brucella spp. in Baltic ringed seals (Phoca hispida) and East Greenland harp (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and hooded (Cystophora cristata) seals.

Zoonotic infections transmitted from marine mammals to humans in the Baltic and European Arctic are of unknown significance, despite given considerable potential for transmission due to local hunt. Here we present results of an initial screening for Brucella spp. in Arctic and Baltic seal species.

Sea ice meiofauna distribution on local to pan-Arctic scales.

Arctic sea ice provides microhabitats for biota that inhabit the liquid-filled network of brine channels and the ice-water interface. We used meta-analysis of 23 published and unpublished datasets comprising 721 ice cores to synthesize the variability in composition and abundance of sea ice meiofauna at spatial scales ranging from within a single ice core to pan-Arctic and seasonal scales. Two-thirds of meiofauna individuals occurred in the bottom 10 cm of the ice.

Persistent organic pollutants, skull size and bone density of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from East Greenland 1892-2015 and Svalbard 1964-2004.

We investigated skull size (condylobasal length; CBL) and bone mineral density (BMD) in polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from East Greenland (n = 307) and Svalbard (n = 173) sampled during the period 1892-2015 in East Greenland and 1964-2004 at Svalbard. Adult males from East Greenland showed a continuous decrease in BMD from 1892 to 2015 (linear regression: p < 0.01) indicating that adult male skulls collected in the early pre-pollution period had the highest BMD.

Genetics redraws pelagic biogeography of .

Planktonic copepods of the genus play a central role in North Atlantic/Arctic marine food webs. Here, using molecular markers, we redrew the distributional ranges of species inhabiting the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and revealed much wider and more broadly overlapping distributions than previously described. The Arctic shelf species, , dominated the zooplankton assemblage of many Norwegian fjords, where only has been reported previously.